Over 3,000 people march on Toronto's first May Day march on a working day in decades

Toronto -- Six years ago, inspired by 'A day without immigrants' marches across the United States, No One Is Illegal began organizing the May Day of Action for Status for All in Toronto. We were building for a May Day march on a working day but did not anticipate how momentous this year would be. On May Day 2012, we joined with thousands of others in over 150 cities across Turtle Island (colonial Canada and the United States) and millions around the world to mark International Workers Day and asserted the freedom to move, return, and stay for all.

What took place in Toronto could not have been possible without the commitment and energy of the May 1st Movement, Occupy Toronto, Food Not Bombs, Opirg Toronto and Rhythms of Resistance that coordinated various portions of the rally and march and the over 40 organizations that endorsed, mobilized and organized for the largest May Day in our city in recent memory.

>> Join us for a Celebration! Alien-Nation. 8pm. The Rivoli. May 5, 2012. Opening Night for Mayworks Festival. http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/691 <<

Freedom to Move: Too many of us moved because we couldn't stay. We tried to escape war, environmental collapse, and social & economic oppression. We aspire for a world where people move freely and are not pushed out of their homes.

Freedom to Return: Places we called home are lost to us due to military/corporate occupation, imperialism, and climate collapse. We aspire for a world where people can return. Without fear of being targeted as queer and trans, as women, as people with disabilities, as racialized people, as political dissidents, and as Indigenous people.

Freedom to Stay: We toil in temp jobs, often living in fear without full status, targeted by the police and the capitalist state. We prosper by the theft of Indigenous lands. We aspire for a world where Indigenous nations live freely and migrants live in solidarity, decolonizing ourselves and our communities. We desire freedom without fear or indignity.

In a coordinated effort on Refugee Rights Day, members of refugee and immigrant rights groups including No One Is Illegal are occupying Conservative MP offices in Ottawa, Toronto, St. Catharines, Edmonton, and Vancouver Coast Salish Territories. Banners have also been dropped in Montreal and Halifax. These actions are being organized to demand that the Refugee Exclusion Act, Bill C-31, be discarded.

Update: Vancouver activists are occupying Citizenship and Immigration Canada offices.